This new version brings a number of important features
including:
* Cross-processors VMotion (auto-configuration of AMD-V
Extended Migration and Intel FlexMigration) * Virtual
machines live snapshot through Microsoft Volume Shadow
Service (VSS) (only Windows 2003 and 2008 guest OSes) *
Virtual machines live cloning * Virtual disks
hot-extension (only for flat disks without snapshots in
persistent mode) * VMware HA support for individual
virtual machines * VirtualCenter alarms for physical
servers health (single components supported) * Manual
computers addition in Guided Consolidation (by hostname or
IP) * Single Sign-On (SSO) on VirtualCenter client
(capability to pass-through Windows authentication
credentials, with support for smartcards and digital
certificates) * Support for Microsoft Windows Server
2008, Sun Solaris 10 U5, Novell SLES 10 SP2 and Ubuntu 8.04
guest OSes * Support for 8GB Fibre Channel HBAs *
Support for NFS and iSCSI over 10Gbit Ethernet *
Support for Remote Command Line Interface (CLI) (no more
experimental)
Not all combinations of VirtualCenter and ESX Server
versions are supported and not all of these highlighted
features are available unless you are using VirtualCenter
2.5 Update 2 with ESX Server 3.5 Update 2. See the ESX
Server, VirtualCenter, and Virtual Infrastructure Client
Compatibility Matrixes for more information on
compatibility. Features
* Windows Server 2008 support – Windows Server 2008
(Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions) is supported
as a guest operating system. With VMware memory overcommit
technology and the reliability of ESX Server, you can
maximize virtual machine density with this new guest
operating system to achieve the highest ROI. Guest operating
system customizations and Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS)
are not supported with Windows Server 2008. * Enhanced
VMotion Compatibility – Simplifies VMotion compatibility
issues across CPU generations. Enhanced VMotion
compatibility (EVC) automatically configure server CPUs with
Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies
to be compatible with older servers. After EVC is enabled
for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in
that cluster are configured to ensure CPU compatibility for
VMotion. VirtualCenter does not permit the addition of hosts
that cannot be automatically configured to be compatible
with those already in the EVC cluster. * Storage
VMotion – Storage VMotion from an FC/iSCSI datastore to
another FC/iSCSI datastore. This support is also extended
on ESX Server/ESX Server 3i 3.5 Update 1. * VSS
quiescing support – When creating quiesced snapshot of
Windows Server 2003 guests, both filesystem and application
quiescing are supported. With Windows Server 2008 guests,
only filesystem quiescing is supported. For more
information, see the Virtual Machine Backup Guide and the
VMware Consolidated Backup 1.5 Release Notes. * Hot
Virtual Extend Support – The ability to extend a virtual
disk while virtual machines are running is provided. Hot
extend is supported for vmfs flat virtual disks that do no
have snapshots opened in persistent mode. * 192 vCPUs
per Host – VMware now supports increasing the maximum number
of vCPUs per host to 192 given that the maximum number of
Virtual Machines per host is no more than 170 and that no
more than three virtual floppy devices or virtual CDROM
devices are configured on the host at any given time. This
support is also extended on ESX Server 3.5 Update 1.
